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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29889294">To Defeat the Enemy, I Must Become The Enemy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/crypto_w0rm/pseuds/crypto_w0rm'>crypto_w0rm</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>IZ - Fandom, Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad Parent Professor Membrane, Bad Parenting, Blood, Bullying, Dib Being an Asshole (Invader Zim), Enemies to Friends, Frenemies Dib &amp; Zim (Invader Zim), Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mental Health Issues, NO BETA WE DIE LIKE THE ALMIGHTY TALLEST, Not Canon Compliant - Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Post-Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, Self-Harm, Self-Indulgent, Suicidal Thoughts, Trans Dib (Invader Zim), Transphobia, Yelling, Zim Being an Asshole (Invader Zim), except tallest red and purp aren't dead, ftm dib, hurt no comfort (yet?), maladaptive daydreaming, physical bullying, talking to one's self, transdib</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:09:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,627</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29889294</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/crypto_w0rm/pseuds/crypto_w0rm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dib goes off the rails. look at him go!!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>OC X OC, ZADE- Relationship, ZADF - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To Defeat the Enemy, I Must Become The Enemy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>sorry to all the professor membrane fans out there, i love him too but its projecting time sooo<br/>I know some parts are very cryptic but i will be continuing this. I plan on making this a (kind of) long series :))</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Entry #66. Location: the center of the Sirrilian solar system. Just passed planet Warp, home of the first ever portal gun (and most delicious salads) in the universe. I have been travelling for exactly 21 days 15 hours 9 minutes and… 12 seconds ever since I left my last stop, planet Galrean. My food supply has not yet run out. I predict I will have to visit another store in uhhhh 6 days? Yeah, that sounds about right.</p><p>I have not heard from any other Irkens yet. I have seen some, however, but most I have encountered looked at me in a weird way. An angry way? Suspiciously, maybe? Probably. I decided it’s best if I don’t interact with them when they look at me like that. I doubt it will spark friendly conversations. Or… conversations in general.</p><p>My H<sub>2</sub>O supply has been running out. I know I shouldn’t use it on myself like that. I’ve just been feeling… off lately. I’m trying to stop okay? I’m trying.“ <em>click</em></p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>—</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Dib ran down the stairs with much enthusiasm. If he wasn’t careful enough, he surely would’ve tumbled down the steps. It was currently 7:31 in the morning, but that didn’t stop him from jumping down onto the hard tile floor with a loud <em>BANG. </em>He striked a dramatic pose and walked towards the kitchen. Upon walking in, he saw his sister sitting at the dinner table. She had recently bought the brand new game “Evil Robots VS Evil Piggies” for the Gameslave 3. Which meant her eyes had been glued to the screen of her console ever since. Well, she was always playing her videogames, it had just become EXTREME lately. Dib couldn’t really judge her much though since he was awlays busy with his paranormal studies.</p><p>“Mornin’”, Dib greeted his sister.</p><p>“Yo.” She payed him no further mind.</p><p>Dib walked over to the cabinets. He pulled out a box of cereal and peered inside. It was almost empty. Just enough to fill half a bowl remained, if you didn’t count the crumbs at the bottom.</p><p>“Uh hey do you want the last bit of cereal?” Gaz simply looked up at Dib and pointed at the empty bowl standing in front of her on the table, giving her brother a death glare while doing so. Dib frowns and just in time restrained himself from giving her a snarky comeback. Gaz didn’t like it when Dib would eat the last of any food in the house, really. But apparently asking her didn’t do any good either. Whatever, he just wouldn’t ask next time.</p><p>The boy tossed the, now empty, cereal box into the trash. He poured some cold milk into his bowl, grabbed a spoon and sat down at the dinner table. Dad had already left for work. Dad usually left around 5 am. Not like he needed to, the lab building layed right next to their house. Dib guessed his dad just really liked his work that much.</p><p>“Did he leave a note?” Dib scooped up a few pieces of cereal and shoved them into his mouth.</p><p>Gaz sighed “What do you think?”</p><p>He used to do that. Leave notes on the table for his kids to read. He would wish them a good day, sometimes include a cheesy science-related dad joke. He stopped doing that a while ago though. Dib missed them.</p><p>Gaz stood up from her seat and slammed her Gameslave closed loudly. Dib looked up stuffing his mouth with another spoonful.</p><p>“Just so you know, I’m going out tonight.”</p><p>Dib was taken aback. “Oh really? With who?”</p><p>“Just some classmates.”</p><p>“Does dad know?”</p><p>“Why does that matter? Does he know about all the weird shit you do in the woods at night?”</p><p>Dib squinted. “Touché”</p><p>The kids chuckled. Which was uncommon. Just as uncommon as Gaz hanging out with people, Dib realised.</p><p>“Oh by the way, I’m walking with them to skool right now. So i’m leaving right now since they’re probably waiting on me.”</p><p>“O-oh… okay. Hold on, can’t you wait just a bit longer? I’m almost done”, Dib asked as he hastily shoveled down his remaining breakfast.</p><p>“Uhhh I’m going to go with no.”</p><p>“Gath, wait!”, Dib exclaimed, barely audible through the cereal. He spat a small few pieces of food as he spoke. “If i walk alone then Thim ith going to—”</p><p>“I don’t care, Dib. Deal with them yourself.”</p><p>Gaz walked out of the kitchen and to the front door. She swung her backpack around her shoulder and walked out of the house, slamming the door shut before Dib could protest.</p><p>“God dammit.”</p><p>Man, Gaz was way better at this than Dib was. When did she even make these new friends? Or make fun plans with them? The boy picks up th elast bits of cereal with his spoon and eats them up quickly. “No worries”, Dib tells himself. “Just stay positive. What subjects do I have today?” He gets up to put away his used bowl. “Art? That’s fine i guess. Better than chemistry. Yeah this is okay. There’s no need to feel down. Absolutely nothing will ruin this day any further!”</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Hey Dib-smelly!”</p><p>This day has been ruined.</p><p>Dib turned his head towards the direction the annoying, nasal voice came from. It was Zim. Because ofcourse it was. Ofcourse HE of all people (if you could even consider them a person, because y’know they’re an ALIEN) had to bother Dib today. He may have know it was coming, but Saturn, he was still annoyed.</p><p>Zim made a smug face once his and Dib’s eyes met. The human looked away quickly, not wanting to give the annoyance any attention, and continued walking.</p><p>Zim started running towards his rival, quickly catching up to him. The duo first walked next to eachother in silence. Dib kept looking forward. So did Zim, besides shotting an occasional glance at Dib.</p><p>“Hmmm… where is the Dib-sister?”</p><p>“I don’t know, Zim. Where are your Tallest?”</p><p>Ouch. Dib peeked at his enemy, and the enemy looks pissed. Their head hung low and their arms were crossed. Dib sweared he saw Zim thinking of his next plan to kill the paranormal investigator. He did not at all look pleased with that answer. Good. Dib may have an obsession with the paranormal, but right now, he couldn’t have been more far away from the alien marching next to them.</p><p>Zim took a deep breath (despite a strange nose-abscense?) and fixed his posture. Before Dib could look at the alien a second time, they went back to swinging their feet high in the air with every step. Chin, up hands behind his back. Like a true Irken elite, as Zim would say.</p><p>“Why are you following me Zim? Got nothing better to do?”</p><p>“Ofcourse the great Zim has better things to do than to be in the presence of such a filth-beast like you. Zim just enjoys starting their day with making YOURS as miserable as he can.”</p><p>Ugh. Dib wished he would wipe that smirk off his stupid, green face. “Wow. I feel so honoured”, he replied sarcastically.</p><p>When Dib sees Zim has straightened his back again, he tries to do the same. He was slouching the whole time. He slouches, all the time, in fact. It was starting to become a real problem. Zim may have been a whole had shorter than him but Dib’s unusual posture almost made it seem like he was the same height as his alien nemesis. If he wasn’t careful, Zim would soon not only look down upon the human metaphorically, but also literally. Dib’s shoulders fall back down to their original state at the thought.</p><p>Anything he did just made him feel worse. Every step he took next to his sworn enemy made his blood boil harder. Out of the corner of his eye Dib could see Zim looking back at him. His mouth wide, zipper-like teeth slightly visible. He tried walking faster, taking a different route, but the nuisance just kept catching up to him, they just kept following him around! Talking to him, asking condescending questions.</p><p>“Did the Dib-siser leave you behind? Why are you still going to Skool anyways, filth-beast? I thought you were failing your classes? Why aren’t you talking back, huh? Did i hurt your feelings, Dib-stink? Or did your human ‘dad’ finally tell you how crazy he thinks you—”</p><p>Dib had enough.</p><p>The boy stopped in his tracks and turned around. “Seriously, what is your deal?”</p><p>Zim stared blankly at him.</p><p>“Like what are you up to?! What are you trying to achieve with this?! Just—”, he hesitated for a second, “—stop talking to me, stop following me! Leave me alone!”</p><p>Zim didn’t look away. He blinked very slowly and opened his mouth. “Why so hostile, <em>Dib</em>? Is something bothering you?”, they ask smugly. The alien’s mouth contorted into an even bigger grin.</p><p>Dib grunts. He clenched his hand. Not into a fist, more like that thing people sometimes do when they’re frustrated. Like you’re agressively grabbing an invisible object. His right hand shaked vigorously at Zim. He wanted to grab the creature by his collar and punch him as hard as he could, probably resulting in another fight between the two rivals.</p><p>But he didn’t give in. He knew too well he didn’t have time for this. Dib gave Zim one last foul look before turning around and storming off.</p><p>Zim didn’t follow him that time. “Be careful not to let that anger get to you, human! It might interfere with your plan to expose Zim to the world as an <em>alien menace</em>”, they shout from behind Dib.</p><p>What an asshole.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>First period. Physics. Boring. Dib distracted himself by doodling his favourite crytpids in the corner of his notebook. Braxxie, Mothman, Bigfoot, vampire bees. Those damn vampire bees. Lately they just hadn’t been leaving Dib alone. He thought it was a wonder his family hadn’t picked up on his weird new habit of eating honey with every meal; you must be a quadruple vampire…bee…thing by now.</p><p>A group of kids behind Dib whispered to eachother. He couldn’t quite hear what they were saying. As subtly as he could, he leaned back to hear them better.</p><p>“I’m serious! I’m not even sure about what i saw. It felt… weird. Like, dude, that thing WASN’T supposed to be there.”</p><p>“What did you say it looked like again?”</p><p>“I don’t know, man. It was all glowy? It wasn’t even that big, just a small glowing creature. And then… it VANISHED!”</p><p>“Pffft no way, Marty. You’re just trying to scare us”, another kid added.</p><p>Dib’s eyes lit up. The boy couldn’t contain his curiosity. He whirled around, now almost sitting completely backwards in his chair. He adressed the boy who was leading the conversation before thinking ahead.</p><p>“When did you say you saw something in the woods? It was in the woods right?”</p><p>The kids stared at him. One of them cracked an awkward smile. They glanced at eachother before the boy, Marty, Dib believed his name was, scoffed quietly.</p><p>“What are yout looking at? I wasn’t talking to you, freak.”</p><p>Dib gave him a puzzled look. As if he didn’t know what he did wrong. “I just wanted to know about—”</p><p>Dib stopped talking when he saw the kids retreating back to their seats. Marty looked down quickly, completely ignoring Dib.</p><p>“Mr. Membrane! What do you think you’re doing?”</p><p>The paranormal investigator turned back around to see his teacher mere centimeters away from his desk.</p><p>“Go on, what’s so important for you to interrupt my class?”</p><p>“I uh I heard him talking about… something and—”, Dib pointed at Marty</p><p>“What? I wasn’t talking Looks like you were just talking to yourself again Like always.”</p><p>The rest of the class started giggling. Another kid exclaims from the back of the class “Craaazzy.” Laughter grows. Dib can see Zim chuckling on the other side of the classroom. The boy betted <em>he </em>was really enjoying this.</p><p>“Look, I don’t care what you do with your free time, Dib. Just oay attention in my class, understood.”</p><p>“I’m not crazy! They were talking about something they saw in the woods, i swear! I was just asking them about it and—”</p><p>“Dib! Quiet! Do you want me to send you to the principal’s office?”</p><p>“No”, he mumbled unenthusiastically.</p><p>“Good, now let’s get back to where I left off.”</p><p>The mocking laughter which came from behind him died down slowly once the teacher continued talking about whatever they were going on about. Dib had already forgotten. And he went back to doodling.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>12:10. Lunch time. Dib sits down at a bench on the skool’s playground. Alone. Bu tnot really.</p><p>The good thing about sitting outside was that nobody would bother him. Plus, where Dib was sitting, there was great wifi. Better than inside the cafeteria. His phone buzzed. He read the notification that popped up on the screen. “Flying dinosaur creature spotted in The City. Conspiracies grow.”</p><p>Hmm. Dib had heard about that before. He was sure he had seen a real living dinosaur when he was younger. He tried telling his classmates and teachers, but nobody believed him. That had become a habit by now, though.</p><p>The paranormal had always followed Dib. He wasn’t sure why. It’s like it was drawn to him. He could honestly be anywhere; in the woods, at the beach, in a McMeaties parking lot. Heck! Even in skool since a few years ago. Every sort of cryptid, mythical creature, anything. It was hard not to get so invested in something that has been stalking you like a shadow follows you around.</p><p>Dib’s train of thought got cut off when he saw a couple of kids sneak out of skool through a hole in the wire fence. They were with only 3. Were that the three kids Dib heard talking in class during physics? He could’ve sworn it was them. What were they doing? Normally Dib wouldn’t have thought anything of it, they were probably just going to ditch skool and get food. But they went via the woods when there were easier ways to sneak out. Like going via the back of the skool or going through one of the emergency doors in the gym. He tried to rememeber what he overheard during class. Something in the woods. Something supernatural?</p><p>Dib had to know what they were up to.</p><p>He put his food back into his backpack, took his phone and stood up. The boy looked around to see if any teachers were watching him, to see if he wouldn’t get in trouble. When he was sure the coast was clear, he made his way to the fence. He peered through it. The kids were already ahead of him. Dib gripped his phone tight in his hand. One final glance at the skool behind him, and he set off into the forest.</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Zim!”</p><p>A deep, smooth voice called out. Zim, who was on their way to the cafeteria, turned around to see his ‘homeroom teacher’ jogging towards him.</p><p>“Wait up!”</p><p>“Zim is waiting”, he states bluntly.</p><p>The man, after a few seconds, catched up. He huffed a couple of times while Zim blinkedslowly at him. He was wearing a light blue button up shirt with a dark blue cardigan on top. It contrasted nicely with his light brown pants. After an awkward silence, he finally began speaking.</p><p>“I wanted to talk to you about something.”</p><p>“Oh? What is it?” Zim cocks an eyebrow.</p><p>Mr. Axul took of his glasses and wiped the foggy glasses with his cardigan. “Would you walk with me for a few moments?”</p><p>Zim hesitated. He planned on calling GIR, asking him about the status of the cheese producing orb the alien had created a few days ago for his latest plan. They just had to monitor it first, since it was too unstable to be set loose. But oh boy, when he <em>would </em>set it loose, Zim would be rid of this filthy planet forever. He was sure of it.</p><p>“Eh… fine. But make it quick! Zim has important uhhh lunch buisiness to deal with!”</p><p>“Yes, right.” The duo started strolling down the halls. “Zim, i realised you and Dib hang out quite a lot and—”</p><p>“Whaaaat? Nonsense! The Dib has done nothing but torture Zim since the moment I came to this town.”</p><p>“Y-yeah Zim. That’s what i wanted to talk with you about. Dib isn’t exactly the nicest to you is he?”</p><p>“He is indeed not!”</p><p>“Has he always bullied you?”</p><p>“Eh bullied?” Zim stopped walking for a second to think. The green kid raised an eyebrow. He’d heard that word before, he thought. He knew it was looked down upon, yet he had also heard alot about how people don’t care when it happens, like they pay no mind to it. “Hmm oh yes, yes he has”, Zim replied, his voice a little more helpless than usual.</p><p>“I’m sorry to hear that, Zim. You must know that it’s nothing personal. I’ve talked with his father about his behaviour before, he says Dib has always acted this, er, unruly.”</p><p>The teacher, Mr. Axul, didn’t really need to bring Zim somewhere specific. Mostly they just walked circles. “I was thinking, is that why you have trouble connecting with other classmates?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“Well, Zim, sometimes when kids feel bad because of something that is happening, they have trouble interacting with their peers. Can you relate to that?”</p><p>“What? Zim has no troubles! I am perfectly fine!”</p><p>“Oh… are you sure?”</p><p>“I am very sure. I don’t care about what the Dib has to say about me! I AM ZIM!”</p><p>“Okay, well, I’m glad to hear Dib’s behaviour hasn’t caused you any harm.” Mr. Axul’s voice sounded sheepish. He hesitated before continuing. “But I spoke with your and Dib’s other teachers. And we concluded that since you’re a little closed off from the rest of your peers, and Dib’s grades have been going down, that maybe it would be a good idea if you helped him with his work, tutored him.”</p><p>Zim stopped walking. They looked up at the man with wide eyes, who turned to face the small alien. Zim’s reaction startled him a bit, Zim noticed. Mr. Axul fidgeted before explaining further.</p><p>“It’s just that you get such good grades! In science classes! And Dib, well, he’s falling behind. We thought it would be a good way for the both of you to—”</p><p>“Zim is thinking! Zim needs to think! Hmm… what’s in it for me?”</p><p>“Er, well, I was just explaining that you two could connect with eachother, maybe even become friends. Oh and you’d also get extra credit if you go through with it.“</p><p>“Tell me more about this ‘tutoring’…”</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>Dib followed the faint voices of his classmates deeper into the woods. He started to realise that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t such a good idea to follow people he didn’t know that well into woods where he wasn’t allowed to be in, and hadn’t been in many times before. Atleast not the part of the forest that was so close to the Skool.</p><p>In short: he didn’t know where he was. And he prayed to the gods he would find a way back.</p><p>The leaves and twigs under him crunched everytime he took a step further. Dib was already imaging what he could find. If the other kids were really telling the truth, and they got to the creature first, people would finally believe him.</p><p>A giggle came from behind him. The boy turned his head quickly. He gripped his phone tighter. Dib heard the rustling of leaves in the distance. He felt his stomach turn. Nervousness. This was it.</p><p>“Come on Dib, you’ve done this before. Just get ready and—”</p><p>The sound of footsteps came closer to him. The paranormal investigator whirled around, almost tripping over his own feet.</p><p>“NOW!”</p><p>Before he realised what was happening, he felt something hit him in his back and pin him down on the ground. He yelped loudly and let go of the device in his hand. He felt something pressing down harder on his back. A pair of hands gripped Dib’s arms, squeezing them to the ground. The twigs underneath poked through his skin. When he struggled, nails would claw deeper into his limbs.</p><p>The boy looked up when he saw someone approaching him. He couldn’t look up and see who it was, but he recognised the voice.</p><p>“Ha! Told you guys he’d fall for it.”</p><p>It was Marty.</p><p>“What the fuck are you guys doing? Let me go!”</p><p>“I thought you wanted to see something cool? What’s wrong, this isn’t what you were expecting?”</p><p>“Fuck off!”</p><p>The kid who held Dib down kicked the heel of his foot into Dib’s back. “Shut up, freak.”</p><p>Dib saw another kid a bit to his right. “Do you wanna record it or should I?”</p><p>“You go ahead, i’ll take care of him”, Marty replied.</p><p>The girl took out her phone from her backpack and turned on her camera. She took a few steps back. Marty, on the other hand, walked over to Dib, who was still trying to escape one of his classmate’s grasp.</p><p>“Get off of me! Seriously leave me alone!”</p><p>“Oh what was that? Crazy kid is talking about something other than weird monsters?”</p><p>Dib felt a hand grip his cowlick and yank his head upward.</p><p>“AGH! What the hell!”</p><p>“Push him into the ground!”, Dib heard the girl shout. She chuckled and looked back at her phone.</p><p>Before Dib could resist, his face was squished against the dirty, moist ground with Marty’s shoe. When his head was turned to one side, he saw a bee walk over a leaf infront of him. It flew away when Dib’s head was once again pulled up unceremoniously.</p><p>Dib’s face was dirty all over. He could barely see through his stained glasses. Dib heard the students laugh at him.</p><p>“Aw look at you! You fit right in with your weird forest creatures!”</p><p>Another kid continued. “If i didn’t know any better, i’d say you were Bigfoot himself!”</p><p>They all burst out in laughter. Dib didn’t know how many kids there were. But they were all taunting him, laughing at him. The boy could feel his face burn. This sucked. He wished he could just dissapear.</p><p>His hair was tugged at once again, Marty didn’t let go. He just pulled up. His head stinged harshly. Dib gritted his teeth. The painful sensation grew with every jerked movement. He felt a lump in his throat start to form. The students were throwing insult after insult at him, but Dib didn’t listen to what they were saying. He tried tuning them out.</p><p>“Don’t cry”, he though to himself. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’tcrydon’tcrydon’tcry! Everyone will see. Just ignore them!! Stop crying!!”</p><p>Despite his best efforts to calm himself down, Dib’s already limited vision blurred. When his hair was pulled up once again, he closed his eyes shut tight. And warm tears rolled down his cheeks.</p><p>“Oh my god is he crying?”</p><p>All eyes turned to Dib.</p><p>“Aw don’t cry, we’re helping you! We’re just trying to get all that creepy shit out of your head! Make you less insane!”</p><p>Marty twisted his cowlick and pulled it back, making sure Dib was facing the camera. The boy’s blood started to boil. He just wanted them to leave him alone. Why was it always him who was targeted? Why couldn’t everyone just stop being assholes to him?!</p><p>He felt something on his face. A cold hand grabbed the skin on his cheeck and pinched it roughly. One of Dib’s tears rolled onto his fingers.</p><p>“Ew gross.” Marty instinctivly pulled his hand away and wiped it onto his pants. His hand was placed back on the side of Dib’s face, now pulled at with nails digging into Dib’s flesh, making Dib hurt even more. Marty grasped his cheeck sternly and twisted Dib’s face to make it look like he was half smiling.</p><p>“See? Much better! We’re doing you a favor here!”</p><p>He wasn’t fucking crazy. He wasn’t he wasn’t. Dib knows the things he sees, the things he’s experienced. Everyone else was just too dumb to notice it. Dib wasn’t a freak. They were wrong! He was sick of it! Sick of being a laughingstock! He isn’t here to be mocked. Ridiculed. He wanted to just—</p><p>All the students around him giggled. Marty pulled even harder another time but let out a scream when he felt something sharp dig into his fingers.</p><p>“OW what the fuck?! Did you just bite me?!”</p><p>Dib felt the grip around his hair dissapear and the person keeping him down loosen his hold of him.</p><p>“Woah are you okay?”</p><p>“No i’m not okay, i’m fucking bleeding!”</p><p>Dib felt the blood on his lips. He wiped it off with his fingers and looked at it. Bright red stains covered his fingertips. A few drops made their way in hs mouth. It tasted disgusting. But it smelled.</p><p>Sweet.</p><p>Dib grapped one of the kids’ legs and dragged it across the ground. They fell to the ground with a loud thud.</p><p>“AH what the—”</p><p>A terrifying scream escaped the kid’s mouth as Dib sank his teeth into their leg. The girl flinched and turned off her phone. The kid pulled back. Their eyes wide, staring at Dib, who’s face was covered in red. The boy let out a low hissing sound when the kid kicked him in his face. All the students stared back as Dib got up and clenched his fists. The boy looked them dead in the eye. That’s when the 2 kids noticed. His once brown irises had turned a bright gold.</p><p>“Holy shit, we have to get out of here.”</p><p>“You’re not going ANYWHERE!”</p><p>Dib lunged at the 2 students before being held back by the girl previously filming the whole thing.</p><p>“Sara watch out!”, yelled Marty.</p><p>Dib and Sara struggled. The duo stumbled back and fourth, fighting to gain control. Dib yelped as Sara tightened her arm’s grip around the boy’s neck.</p><p>“You two go and get help! I’ll hold him back!”</p><p>Marty nodded and grabbed the other kid’s arm before running of towards the skoolbuilding.</p><p>“AGH let go of me!” Dib gasped, pulling at the girl’s arm. Sara wouldn’t budge. Dib’s attempts of freeing himself from her grasp were hopeless. “Come back, assholes!” People were going to find him like this. The boy was desperate to escape the situation. And once again, he felt tears sting in his eyes. He didn’t know what was happening to him. Then, a sudden ringing in his ear formed, Sara’s voice was blurred. But right as she was about to pull the boy down to the ground, Dib dug his teeth into her arm. Crimson spilled out as a scream escaped her lips. She stumbled back a few steps and clenched her arm. Dib wiped the liquid from his face. He felt disgusting.</p><p>Dib heard the two kids yell out for their friend when they saw what happened to her. The boy turned around and saw Sara on the ground, reaching for her phone and holding it up with her right hand, keeping her other hand limp beside her. A gross, big, dark stain had formed on her sleeve and the red didn’t seem to stop spreading.</p><p>“I’ll make sure people see you like this! You won’t get away with this you… YOU MONSTER!”</p><p>Dib couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t WANT to take this anymore!</p><p>“AGH!! just— just—”</p><p>He raised his hands up to his head. He clawed and grasped at his dark, messy hair. The words echoed in his head. It was painful. Dib yelled out.</p><p>“LEAVE ME ALONE!”</p><p>He felt his throat ache from screaming. A million different sounds swirled around him, trapped him. And as Dib felt his tears roll down his cheeks, it stopped.</p><p>Everything stopped.</p><p>He didn’t hear anything. Not the kids, not their insults, not even his own thoughts. For a moment his body felt weightless. Like every emotion he felt right before that point had dissapeared. As if he released them along with the scream. And he couldn’t hear a thing.</p><p>Dib let out a sudden sigh. And when he opened his eyes, he could feel all of his previous emotions rush back to him.</p><p>The great trees that once surrounded him in the forest had been destroyed. Every single one looked like it had fallen down. And the trunks were all pointing away from Dib.</p><p>Did he…? No. No he coudn’t have.</p><p>The three kids opened their eyes and groaned as if they had just awoken from a deep sleep. They were now all sitting up, a few meters away from Dib. Marty rubbed his head. Sara tried to clear her face of her now very messy hair. She looked up at Dib, who stood still. Breathing heavily. Sweat dripping down his forehead. Sara glanced at her two friends in front of her, meters away. They looked just as confused as she did.</p><p>Dib noticed himself shaking. He looked down at his hands. Red dripped down his fingers, to his palms onto the ground. Blood stained his sneakers and the cuffs of his jeans. Heavy breathing turned to hyperventilating.</p><p>Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move. People. They came from towards the skool. Dib turned his head, but everything was blurry. He couldn’t see who the people were, but he felt their shock, their fear. Two of them ran up to the students surrounding Dib. The third person walked over to Dib, hesitantly. When he saw them up close, Dib saw it was Mr. Axul. He opened his mouth to talk to Dib, but the boy couldn’t comprehend what the teacher said. A hand gripped Dib’s arm and before he could react, his feet moved forward.</p><p>He didn’t know what just happened. He couldn’t remember anything after being pulled along by his teacher. Now, Dib found himself in the principal’s office. The blood had been washed off his hands, though red stains remained. All he could hear now was a loud voice booming through the room. He recognised the voice. It was his father. Professor Membrane. Although, Dib could not spot him when he looked around. The only person sitting infront of him was the principal. Beside him, Dib could see a screen hovering over an office chair. He was sitting in the exact same type of chair, the boy noticed. The screen displayed Professor Membrane’s face, if Dib could even call it that. He hadn’t seen his dad without his goggles or unifrom on in so long. He wondered if he could even remember the last time he took them off.</p><p>Dib’s pupils swirled around. “That’s an ugly painting”, he thought “why does the principal need so many pens?” Anything to distract him. To drown out the loud noise coming from the monitor.</p><p>Dib was surprised, really. His dad wasn’t really the type to actually pay attention to Dib when he had done something wrong.</p><p>“This is the last straw Dib! This is the last time I’ll allow this!” The professor tried to calm down and soften his voice. Maybe at a meaningless attempt to make Dib listen to him. “I can’t… we can’t keep doing this, Dib. How many more times before something bad happens? Before you– before someone gets killed!?”</p><p>“Noone is gonna die, dad”, Dib mumbled.</p><p>“YOU BIT THESE KIDS! You attacked them like some savage!”</p><p>“They attacked me first! It’s on video, they filmed the entire thing!”</p><p>The principal reached out a hand. “Dib—”</p><p>“THEIR ELECTRONIC DEVICES WERE DESTROYED!”, professor Membrane reacted. “You destroyed their property! And who will have to pay for the damage <em>YOU </em>Did?”</p><p>“…You.”</p><p>“Me! Exactly!” Dib’s father sighed deeply and rubbed his neck. “Do you have any idea how dangerous your behaviour is? I cannot handle anymore of your reckless actions! I expect you to go home immediatly, do your homework and think about what you’ve done! You’re grounded!”</p><p>“…Does that mean I’m not allowed to watch Mysterious Mysteries today?”</p><p> </p><p>—</p><p> </p><p>“Entry #67. Location: Eehhh… reaching the end of the Sirrilian solar system. I never really noticed how pretty te sun is here. It’s not quite like ours. This one is bigger. Way bigger. OH ALSO! Apparently I can’t look at this sun for longer than a few seconds. Yeah, guess how i found that out! Haha! Ha yeahhh… Welp I’m steadily regaining my vision, I think it’ll be fine. Uhh what was i gonna say? ………… Oh yeah! So uh good news, i don’t think i need anymore H2O! I’m feeling pretty okay! I— I mean i don’t really know why? Heh, i guess i just kinda do? I’ve been reading alot today. I started right before i went to the store. I guess that’s why i didn’t buy any H2O. I think i just really needed that. Reading, ahh, nice. I love it! Reminds me of… of the old days hehe… Well uh wanna know what i’m readin' about? I mean, you can’t really answer. There isn’t really a ‘you’. I’m not talking to anyone. Just. Myself. B-but that’s fine! So! I’m reading about extinct alien species! Although some of them are only presumed to be extinct. The book says that some may have fled to other planets! Isn’t that fascinating? I think it is…</p><p>I wish someone would actually listen to me. It just… gets <em>so </em>lonely here. I can’t take it sometimes. I don’t… just… I-i just feel…</p><p>Screw this. I’m goin' back to the store.“ <em>click</em></p>
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